Stream Check 2026, second run
Where radio streams deliver no track titles
In the first stream check, one in four stations had no track title. I have now repeated the measurement and extended the German list to all 16 federal states. The picture is more accurate, and it is not the one I first assumed.
- Of 995 German streams tested, 54 % send a track title. In 34 % only the station name is in the stream, in 12 % the field is empty or missing.
- 337 streams (34 %) run on the same streaming provider. All 337 carry only the station name, never a title. That accounts for about three in four of the streams without titles.
- Without that provider, 82 % of the remaining 658 streams deliver a title.
- In the Netherlands local stations show a clear gap: of the regional and local streams 40 % deliver a title, of the national ones 89 %.
- The figures come from my own samples and are not representative.
What changed since the first run
The first run on 24 October counted 190 German stations, weighted towards Baden-Württemberg. That skewed the sample. So I used a small script to add up to 40 more stations per federal state from the open Radio-Browser, the most listened to ones whose stream was reachable. Together with the old list that gives 995 counted streams. In ten states 40 new streams were added, in the others fewer, because there were fewer reachable entries or the streams were already in the old list.
I also repeated the Dutch run. Of 1,253 addresses, 776 were reachable and delivered audio this time. A little over a week lies between the two runs, and many results did not change. For individual stations the title status flips from run to run, for example because a jingle is playing.
This time I count the individual stream, not the brand. The figures are therefore not directly comparable with the first article.
The overall picture
One provider explains most of it
The server identifier in the response header shows which software delivers the stream. For 337 of the 995 streams it is the same one. On all 337 only the station name arrives. A title is missing without exception. The Dutch list is the same: 48 streams with this identifier, all without a title.
| Finding | Streams | with title |
|---|---|---|
| All German streams | 995 | 54 % |
| of these with this one server identifier | 337 | 0 % |
| all others | 658 | 82 % |
The 337 streams are spread over 61 server addresses. They are mostly large commercial broadcasters with many extra channels, which is why so many streams add up. Reading the number as the state of the whole industry overstates the problem. For small stations it says little.
For three of the biggest brands in this group I found hints in the source of the website of a separate service from the provider, through which the player presumably gets titles and covers. The title then shows on the website but is missing in the stream itself. For third-party players, car radios and smart speakers that would mean: they see only the station name. I did not re-measure this in live operation, and I did not check it for the other brands. I do not know whether every customer of this provider uses such a service.
The federal states compared
Without the streams with the conspicuous identifier, this is the picture by state. The samples are small, so the percentages vary a lot. I list only states with at least 16 streams.
| Federal state | Streams | with title |
|---|---|---|
| Hesse | 36 | 94 % |
| Berlin and Brandenburg (listed together) | 32 | 94 % |
| Bavaria | 38 | 92 % |
| Bremen | 23 | 91 % |
| Lower Saxony | 80 | 90 % |
| Hamburg | 27 | 89 % |
| Saarland | 39 | 85 % |
| Baden-Württemberg | 109 | 83 % |
| Brandenburg | 18 | 83 % |
| Thuringia | 38 | 82 % |
| Saxony | 17 | 82 % |
| Mecklenburg-Vorpommern | 24 | 79 % |
| Rhineland-Palatinate | 20 | 75 % |
| Berlin | 34 | 68 % |
| Saxony-Anhalt | 16 | 44 % |
| North Rhine-Westphalia | 40 | 40 % |
In North Rhine-Westphalia and Saxony-Anhalt the title field is conspicuously often empty: in 60 % and 44 % of the streams respectively. Whether that is a pattern or down to the selection, I cannot say from this sample. Schleswig-Holstein is missing from the table: of 40 streams there, 31 have the conspicuous identifier and only 9 remain.
The Netherlands: local stations deliver titles less often
The gap between big and small that I saw in the first run is confirmed in the Dutch list.
| Group | Streams | with title |
|---|---|---|
| National (“landelijk”) | 136 | 89 % |
| Others (source: “Overige”) | 448 | 83 % |
| Regional and local, all | 192 | 40 % |
| Regional and local, without the conspicuous identifier | 144 | 53 % |
Even when the streams with the conspicuous identifier are taken out, the regional and local stations stay more than 30 percentage points behind the national ones. In 44 % of these streams the title field is empty. The measurement does not show why. Possible reasons are metadata that is not switched on at the server or not connected to the playout automation.
What this means for stations
- Test your stream yourself. The checklist in the first article takes five minutes.
- Ask your provider a concrete question. For example: does my stream send metadata in ICY format, and where do I switch it on?
- If the title appears only on the website, it arrives by a separate route. Car radios, smart speakers and third-party players will not see it.
Limits of the measurement
- These are snapshots from 2 November 2026. During jingles and ad breaks the title field can be empty for a moment.
- The selection is not representative. The German streams come from a user-maintained database. For each federal state I added the most listened to ones. Baden-Württemberg is still the best represented because of the first list (256 of 995 streams).
- The Dutch list is, by its own account, no longer updated. Only streams that were running were counted: 776 of 1,253 addresses.
- I only checked the title in the stream itself. Titles that arrive through a separate interface I found for only three brands and did not record systematically.
- I checked whether a title arrives, not whether it is correct.
Free stream check for your station
I am happy to check your stream and send you a short report with concrete tips. It is free and commits you to nothing. Send me the stream address: kontakt@ondial.de
Who is writing this
I am Felix Wallerius and I am building Ondial, a web player for radio stations. I have a stake in the topic, so I took care to quote only figures that can be checked. Try Ondial